PERFORMANCE OF THREE-PRONGED WHEEL HOE ON THE DRUDGERY REDUCTION OF FARM WOMEN AGAINST TRADITIONAL PRACTICES

K. SUDHA RANI¹, G. NARAYANA SWAMY², G.T. MADHAVI³, G. PRASAD BABU⁴*
¹Subject Matter Specialist (Home Science.), ICAR-Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Reddypalli, 515701, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU), Lam, Guntur, 522034, India
²Programme Coordinator, ICAR-Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Reddypalli, 515701, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU), Lam, Guntur, 522034, India
³Subject Matter Specialist (Horticulture), ICAR-Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Reddypalli, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU), Lam, Guntur, 522034, India
⁴Programme Coordinator, ICAR-Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Banavasi, 518 360, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU), Lam, Guntur, 522034, India
* Corresponding Author : prasadgereketi@gmail.com

Received : 29-08-2020     Accepted : 13-09-2020     Published : 15-09-2020
Volume : 12     Issue : 17       Pages : 10163 - 10166
Int J Agr Sci 12.17 (2020):10163-10166

Keywords : Drudgery, Three pronged wheel hoe, Weeding efficiency, Drudgery index, ODR
Academic Editor : Dr Meera Kumari, Dr Manish Sachan, R. K. Naik, M. V. Dabhi
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : Authors are thankful to ICAR- Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Banavasi, 518 360, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU), Lam, Guntur, 522034, India and Authors are also thankful to ICAR-Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Reddypalli, 515701, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU), Lam, Guntur, 522034, India
Author Contribution : All authors equally contributed

Agriculture is a primarily unorganized sector in which women are the backbone of agricultural work force because they perform more than 79% of farm activities like winnowing, weeding, grading, threshing and cleaning. Weeding is one of the drudgery prone operations in agriculture and horticultural crops. In order to reduce the drudgery among farm women, KVK, Reddipalli, Anantapuramu has introduced three-pronged wheel hoe as drudgery reducing tool and demonstrated for three years from 2016-17 to 2018-19 in adopted villages covering 60 farm women in crops like Tomato, chilli, bhendi & cluster bean. Study indicated that due to introduction of this improved three pronged wheel hoe labour employed for an acre reduced from 7 to 3, labour wages per acre reduced from Rs.1316, time taken for weeding per acre was reduced from 6.7 hr to 5.3 hours, overall discomfort rate was reduced from 8.2 to 4.4 and Musculo-skeletal problem (MSP) was also reduced from high to low in demonstration compared to control. Further the drudgery index was also moderate in demonstration compared to high in control.

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